Ford Launches Seven Global Challenges to Address Urban Issues

Ford has launched a series of challenges under the Innovate Mobility umbrella that invites developers to find solutions for key challenges facing some of the large cities across the world. The problems are uniquely identified for each city and developers are expected to use their knowledge of the local conditions, data sets and Ford Open XC Platform to come up with innovative solutions.

Challenge Post announced a total of seven challenges that come under the Innovate Mobility series. Three of these challenges are now open to developers across the world, while the others will open up in a sequential fashion in the next few weeks.

The three challenges currently open are:

Parking Lot 2.0: This challenge aims to address the unused parking lots across Los Angeles by extending the uses of these empty parking areas.

Monsoon Downpour: Developers answering this challenge attempt to help citizens in Mumbai wade through monsoon season in a better way. Solutions to this challenge must address mobility, because monsoons cripple travel throughout the city.

These three challenges opened July 15 and submissions will be accepted through October 14. The prize money is significant—the Grand Prize in each challenge is $15,000. There are prizes for second and third place along with a popular choice award and a special award for the best Ford Open XC integration.

Ford Open XC Platform is a hardware/software in-vehicle platform that allows for custom-pluggable applications and provides vehicle data that could be optimally used to create unique driving experiences and feedback.

The remaining four challenges in this series are not yet opened. Those challenges include: